The invention relates to improved apparatus for arranging and stacking nonrigid articles in multiple layers.
Apparatus is presently manufactured which is capable of arranging a plurality of substantially rigid rectangular containers, such as boxes or cartons, in a selected pattern to form a layer, and then stacking such layers one atop the other on a pallet or other support to form a tiered stack. Such known apparatus is generally well suited for handling substantially rigid articles, but is lacking in its ability to handle nonrigid articles, such as bags of loose, or granular materials, as bagged cement, flour, etc.
A problem with most previous apparatus is that it generally operates to produce a pushing force against an upright side of an article or layer of articles to urge them to move in a selected direction along a path over substantially stationary supports. In other apparatus the turning of the articles to produce a desired arrangement within a layer is produced by stopping or physically pushing against one side of the article which may tend to deform the bag.
A general object of the present invention is to provide novel apparatus for arranging multiple nonrigid articles in a layer and stacking the layers in multiple tiered stacks, which apparatus overcomes the disadvantages of previous apparatus set out above in a simple and economic manner.
More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide apparatus for arranging and stacking nonrigid articles in which such articles are positively supported by and moved in a desired direction in the apparatus by support elements which are moved in the direction which the article is to be moved. Such apparatus thereby minimizes any possibility of deformation of the articles themselves or disorientation of the articles within a layer during the moving of either the individual articles or a layer of the articles.
A still further object is to provide such novel apparatus is which an article carrying carriage is vertically shiftable to carry an arranged layer of articles to a position over a previously deposited layer, and to thereafter deposit its layer upon the previously deposited layer, with the carriage including a roller bed having power driven article support rollers which when driven under power are operable to support and positively convey a layer of articles in a desired direction in the apparatus.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such apparatus in which the roller bed on the carriage may be extended to a position overlying a previously deposited layer of nonrigid articles and be pressed downwardly against the top of such articles to compress and flatten them to receive the next layer in the stack.
A still further object is to provide such apparatus which includes novel sensing means for determining the magnitude of pressure exerted against the top of a layer for flattening the same, thus to allow selectivity in operation of such flattening device.
These and other objects and advantages will become more fully apparent as the following description is read in conjunction with the drawings.